If
your answer to any of these questions was yes, then it’s time to take your
frustrations out on a game of Empires before you get yourself into serious
trouble.

Sample
Maps

Sample
maps are below, the first of a game "in play" (different nations in
different colours), the second a blank map to illustrate the European Empires
map. Each map is a thumbnail, click on the map to expand it.

Introduction

Empires
is a game of diplomacy, conflict and conquest. It’s designed to have the
maximum of action with the minimum of fuss. There are currently four different
versions with different maps and slightly different rules.

Medieval
Empires plays on a map of Europe which is divided up into thirty small
countries (with up to thirty players at the start – there will soon be many
fewer).

World
Empires plays on a three-panel world map that includes almost any country of
the twentieth century and adds air forces to the rules used in Medieval &
European Empires, making it a little more challenging than the other two.

More
variants are likely to follow. Medieval Empires is particularly well suited to
“private” games (gather a group of players of your own, and we’ll run the
game for you) since it plays quite well with fewer than the full number of
players (the routines for non-player countries are quite effective in this game,
and the “dummy” players can be awkward opponents, especially at the start).

Each
turn in Empires you make some basic decisions, between peace and war, between
increasing your income or expanding your territory, between strengthening your
links with your neighbours or strengthening your defences, your army, your navy
or your air force (this last, not in Medieval or Napoleonic Empires, obviously).

The
map is divided into land and sea areas. Land areas contain terrain (mountains,
uplands, lowlands, forests, wetlands, deserts, jungles), population (which
generates income), armies (which fight) and forts (which make armies stronger)
and naval bases (from which your navy can support your armies or sail forth to
meet the navy of your enemy). In addition to the armies on the map each kingdom
(or empire) has an army reserve, a navy, and (for games where it’s
appropriate) an air force.

Supply
costs limit your ability to build up your armies indefinitely. Build too many
armies and you’ll spend you whole income feeding them. In Empires, the smaller
army will never win a battle, but it will often win a war. A lean, mean fighting
machine can fight more often and will fight when it chooses.

Development
costs rise the more you grow, and limit your ability to build up your income
indefinitely. And if you build too few armies your economic growth will go for
nothing, except to enrich your warlike neighbours (if they’re not warlike now,
try looking prosperous with a weak army, and see what happens).

In
Empires, armies can retreat when attacked by larger forces. To force a decisive
battle you must manoeuvre to prevent your opponent from retreating, or make your
attack against a position your opponent cannot afford to lose.

Army
concentrations are limited by the dispersal rules.

At
the end of each turn an area can contain only as many armies as population, plus
one army for each fortification. Above that, they begin to disperse (into your
army reserve).

Naval
forces are deployed in naval bases, and their effectiveness depends on how far
from your bases you attempt to operate. Naval and air forces automatically
deploy to support land forces when required. Air forces (in versions where they’re
included) are abstracted: they show up wherever and whenever they’re needed.

Scouts
report what’s happening in all territories adjacent to your own, Spies can
move anywhere and send back reports from wherever they go. Or they can go to
places belonging to other countries, and blow them up. Or go to ground and
continue sending back their reports until an enemy guesses where they are and
hunts them down. Or they can lie in wait for enemy spies and ambush them as they
arrive.

There
are no random numbers in Empires, as uncertainty (“friction” in military
jargon) is provided by a unique processing system, under which “fog of war”
increases as the turn progresses. As the start of the turn everything in the
game (armies deployed, fortifications, populations, air and naval strengths) is
exactly as reported at the end of the previous turn. As the turn continues and
armies move around, the situation can be very different and the best laid plans
come into conflict with the best laid plans of your opponents.

If
you’re first in the process order, your first action will be made against a
situation that will be exactly known. By the time your second action happens,
everyone else will have made their first action, and the situation will have
changed a little. By the time of your last action everything will gave changed,
and your actions had better be things that don’t depend on what other people
do.

The
order of play in each turn varies according to what you spend on initiative in
the previous turn. The more you spend the sooner you move, but the less you’ve
got left to spend on other things.

In
Empires you can start by waiting for a new game (there are always waiting lists
open) or by taking over an existing “standby” position (where the previous
player has dropped out). You may have to wait a while for a new game to start,
but standby positions are normally available very quickly. One option is to take
a standby position while you learn your way around the game while you wait for
the next new game to fill. Once started, games normally run with two-weekly
deadlines (so you've fourteen days between turns).

Turnfees
in Empires are £2.00 for one, £8.00 for four, £18.00 for ten and £32.00 for
twenty. There are further discounts available if you play in more than one game.
Click
here for more details of turnfees.

To join
Empires you'll need to send £5.00
(payable to Ab Initio Games) along with your name and address,
which covers the cost of your rulebook, setup and first three turns (or first
five turns if starting in a standby position). When you
send in your application please indicate which version of the game
(Medieval/European/World Empires) you wish to join (cross out any versions you
don't wish to join).

YES, I’d like to join a game of
Medieval/World Empires (please indicate which version, or cross out the
others, or give preferences, or leave it to us and we'll put you in the best
position or the next one to start).

I’ve
enclosed a cheque/postal order for £5.00 (payable to Ab Initio Games).

Name:

Address:

Where did you first hear about
Empires?:

Email
Address if you're happy to be contacted this way:

Tick
here if you're happy to start in a standby position (with two extra turns):